Good morning, Digital Neighbors! A blessed Sunday to all you fellow Disciples of the Risen One, sons and daughters of Our Heavenly Father, and vessels of the Holy Spirit. As our nation celebrates Father’s Day, I thank God for the fathers in my life. I thank Him for my biological father, Roy, who overcame many hardships to become a man of faith and service. His life was far from perfect; he battled the inheritance of a highly broken family and struggled with alcoholism during his middle and later years. By God’s grace he found sobriety, and I am deeply grateful that I was able to know him as a friend in the last decade of his life. I thank God for him often and pray that he has found redemption and healing.

I also thank God for the many good men He placed in my life who were truly fatherly in their mentoring and guidance. Some were bosses from my younger years, others were professors or priests I encountered during formation and in my early years of ministry. I am particularly thankful for Fr. Charlie Burgoon, a wonderful model of joyful, pastoral, and personal ministry. My three years serving under him were too short, yet packed with gratitude, laughter, and praise. He created a warm work environment and a rectory that felt more like a true home than merely a place to hang your hat. His generous and personal care for his flock continues to inspire my own ministry.

Finally, I am thankful above all to the One true Father—the God of Sinai, the Whisperer at the Cave, the maker of kings and prophets, the great giver of the Covenant—whom we Christians dare to call “Our Father.” His Fatherhood is unlike any earthly version; we are but pale reflections of His great paternal love and loyalty. Yet every man who embraces fatherhood seeks to imitate His providential goodness, His fierce protection of His family, and His unyielding call to true freedom through holiness. All of us fathers—and I am called one by many—strive to reflect something of His authentic Fatherhood in our lives. To all you fathers out there, know of my prayers for you and for the vital role you play in the lives of your children. Blessed Sunday, dear neighbors.

O Lord, teach us, Your children—old and young, large and small—to so apply our Christian beliefs to our daily living that honesty and a generous spirit, helpfulness and the wish to learn, become increasingly a part of us—and so we become more a part of You. We ask it for Your Name’s sake. Amen. – Giles Harcourt

Young Roy